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Christensen Earns National Academic All-American Status

(Houghton, N.Y.)— The country’s sports information directors have voted Houghton College’s Naomi Christensen a national ESPN The Magazine Academic All-American for women’s track and field in the college division (NAIA and NCAA Divisions II and III).

            Christensen is one of just 15 student-athletes honored by the College Sports Information Directors Association (CoSIDA) on the national first team. The association named her to its regional team about three weeks ago.

            “Naomi is an outstanding example of the kind of Christian student-athlete that Coach Smalley and his staff value and that we strive to develop,” said H. “Skip” Lord, director of athletics at Houghton. “Obviously, she is very gifted and works very hard, but the exciting thing is that she is not the exception to the rule. She is a credit to her family and to our school. We are all very proud of her.”

            Christensen was the valedictorian of Houghton’s class of 2008, with a perfect 4.0 grade point average. She had a double major in business and accounting.

            She also earned NAIA All-American First Team honors in indoor track and field, then qualified for and competed at the NAIA national

ESPN The Magazine Academic All-American Naomi Christensen running at the Highlander Invitational earlier this year. Christensen was valedictorian of the class of 2008.

outdoor championships. Christensen holds nine Houghton College individual records—at 55M, 60M, 200M, 400M and 600M indoors and outdoors in the 100M, 200M, 400M and the 400 hurdles—and was a member of five relay teams that also hold Highlander marks.